Why Steve Jobs Couldn't Find a Job Today

Adam Hartung
, ContributorBusiness Success today requires identifying and dealing with market shifts. It is insufficient to be operationally excellent, you have to be agile to deal with changing marketsOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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Meanwhile, leaders that foster and implement innovation have shown how to be successful this last decade. Jeff Bezos has transformed retailing and publishing simultaneously by introducing a raft of innovations, including the Kindle. Google's value soared as its founders and new CEO redefined the way people obtain news - and the ads supporting what people read. The entire "social media" marketplace is now taking viewers, and ad dollars, from traditional media bringing the limelight to CEOs at Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in. While newspaper companies like Tribune Corp., NYT, Dow Jones and Washington Post have faltered, pop publisher Arianna Huffington created $315M of value by hiring a group of bloggers to populate the on-line news tabloid Huffington Post. And Apple is close to becoming the world's most valuable publicly traded company on the back of new product innovations.

But, asking again, would your company hire the leaders of these companies? Would it hire the Vice-President's, Directors and Managers? Or would you consider them too avant-garde? Even President Obama white-washed his commitment to jobs growth when he selected Mr. Immelt to head his committee - demonstrating a complete lack of understanding about what it takes to grow - to innovate - in today's intensely competitive information economy. Where he should have begged, on hands and knees, for Eric Schmidt of Google to show us the way to information nirvana he picked, well, an old-line industrialist.

Until we start hiring promoting innovators we won't have any innovation. We must understand that America's successful history doesn't guarantee it's successful future. Competing on bits, rather than brawn or natural resources, requires creativity to recognize opportunities, develop them and implement new solutions rapidly. It requires adaptability to deal with new technologies, new business models and new competitors. It requires an understanding of innovation and how to learn while doing. America has these leaders. We just need to give them the positions and chance to succeed!